Or should I say ignorance really? I've been reading about a recently released study http://stats.org/stories/2011/debt_self_esteem_jun13_11.html that claims debt promotes self esteem in college age adults. I have to admit, looking back, it makes sense.
During my 20s having things made me happy. We had a house, we had cars, we had cool electronic gadgets, we had way more cool stuff than we actually needed. My husband and I used to pat ourselves on the back because we had almost everything on our 'list'. We both felt pretty smug about the whole situation, to us those things meant we had succeeded and done it so early in life. That meant we were ahead - Yay us!!! In our 30s reality hit.
What we truly had was an obscene (and still growing) amount of debt. We still had the stuff, or most of it anyway, but also we began to glimpse the truth. It's a heartbreaking realization when you discover that after a hard month's work the money is already gone with little, if any left over for fun. I guess, if nothing else, this study has us as 'normal'. My hope is that our children won't be.
They've witnessed, and sacrificed along with us as we struggle to make it to the top of this pile. I'm crossing my fingers that they will learn from it and avoid the cool stuff= status & success illusion.
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